Having friends with fussy kids over for dinner

Penny-Pincher!!

What about a roast dinner or serve yourself meal. You could do:

Chicken/Sausages
Roast or mash
Veggies
Gravy
Yorkshires
Put out some bread and butter?

Spagbol generally goes down well with fussy easters and maybe some garlic bread? Or what about a buffet and just keep simple and cheap?

We've always just eaten whats been offered when we've gone to others home and so has DD. If she doesn't eat, then she goes hungry :-)

lazer

I was the fussy child a number of years ago.I could nearly have listed the things I would eat on my fingers.My mum tried the eat whats put on front of me, and won't make anything else, and i just wouldn't eat it, I would sometimes get a bowl of cornflakes instead. She tried and didn't pander to my fussy eating, but in the end she felt she had to as she couldn't just having eating cornflakes for breakfast, a banana sandwich for lunch, and more cornflakes for dinner.I would only eat processed type food - bacon, sausages, burgers, chicken nuggets, fish fingers etc, and they always had to be with potatoes or chips, no gravy etc, just baked beans, although the only other vegetable i would eat was turnip!My christmas dinner was Potatoes croquettes, sausages, bacon, beans & turnip - and actually its still one of my favourite dinners.I always hated going to other peoples houses for dinner as i hated making a fuss but just couldn't eat anything - i think my body just wasn't to good meat and rejected it!Now years later - I'm still quite fussy, but its now medical instead of plain fussy. I have IBS which is set off by eating anything spicy (as well a number of other things!) so i still have problems going to people's houses for dinner - as its not the kind of thing i want to explain to them!Op - I would give them lots of bread of butter and plain food.

MidLifeCrisis_3

Thanks for all your replies. Although, I think roast would probably be the best bet (whether the veg should be consistency of babyfood is another matter!) as I'm going to be spending the morning at DS football match and will be pushed for time I'm going to opt for moussaka so I can put together in advance and pop in the oven later.

Such fussiness also annoys me, especially when their parents say "you're so lucky your children will eat anything". No luck involved, we have worked hard to get ours to be open minded towards food, to try new things and to be well mannered. There are always things people are not going to like (after all I have my own dislikes), food allergies and genuine food phobias, etc, but pandering to them and giving them only food they will eat is not the answer it is just the easy option. As a child I could be reasonably fussy, but if you didn't eat it you went hungry so you ate it. Food has come a long way from meat and 2 veg or liver and bacon casserole (which I now love!) and there are so many lovely dishes to choose from. I have always tried to make food interesting for our children, I'm not talking smiley mash faces, but with the addition of a few tortillas with chilli, poppadoms/naan with curry and prawn crackers with chinese it has encouraged them to dip and try it with no pressure and now they eat it all up - they even love salad to most peoples horror!

Thank you for giving me the confidence to go for the dish I would like to make.

MLC

Penny-Pincher!!

I think the roast pork sounds delicious with herby spuds. Do you think they may eat a pate with toast for a starter or basic soup?

Norma_Desmond

Can I be the first to suggest you cancel the invitation, cook something delicious for you and your family, and have a quiet, stress-free evening with great food?

kittycat204

MidLifeCrisis wrote: »

if you didn't eat it you went hungry so you ate it.

I know that feeling, thank god that was my mother's attitude. I'll eat anything thing now, and love all food as a result. Think i might go mad if i was a fussy eater.

Itismehonest

I was another one who ate or went hungry & passed that down another generation who, in turn, ate most things.

Just cook what you want. Don't go out of your way to pamper to the friend's children.
If they don't want to eat it then, as has been said, bread & butter, fruit etc. can suffice.

The parents may find that their children aren't half as fussy as they think if they are given something that everyone else is tucking into happily.
In fact, if the kids have any manners at all they'll at least eat a little, apologise for leaving food because they're full up & wait until they get home when Mum & Dad can continue to cater to their whims.

Penny-Pincher!!

Itismehonest wrote: »

I was another one who ate or went hungry & passed that down another generation who, in turn, ate most things.

Just cook what you want. Don't go out of your way to pamper to the friend's children.
If they don't want to eat it then, as has been said, bread & butter, fruit etc. can suffice.

The parents may find that their children aren't half as fussy as they think if they are given something that everyone else is tucking into happily.
In fact, if the kids have any manners at all they'll at least eat a little, apologise for leaving food because they're full up & wait until they get home when Mum & Dad can continue to cater to their whims.

I think this is quite true actually. I remember some of DD's friends whom were fussy coming round after school and never had any problems with them. I did always ask what veg they liked and gave them a choice of what I had in and always chose at least one, even if a couple were only for baked beans:D I remember one time I had done a stew and dumplings and the young girl (11) had never had this before. She had seconds with 4 dumplings and bread and butter too:eek::eek::eek:

Take_it_like_a_man,_sonny

Get it all the time at Yuff Club sleepover. My Johnnie is a vegan, Mine doies not like ...

6:00 am Not a cat will stir.
6:01 Grill On

Wait

6.25 Butties ready to roll.

JOHNNY, YOU CAN'T HAVE ONE BECAUSE!!!!

JimmyTheWig

OP, can I make an observation?

You asked your friend if you should make moussaka and she said (or at least implied with her expression) no.
You asked us what we thought you should make and most people suggested doing a roast.
You're going with the moussaka.

Now, I don't think there's anything wrong with dishing up a moussaka to children. If you know they are fussy then they probably won't eat it, but that's up to you.
But I do think there is something wrong with asking for advice and opinions and then completely ignoring them.

I think in the future that if there's something that you want to do then you should just do it. By asking you are suggesting that the answer you get will have an impact on your choice. It hasn't. So don't ask.